Cosentino, the Spanish company that makes market-leading Silestone engineered quartz, officially launched its new product, Dekton, at 100% Design in Earls Court last month (18-22 September).
Dekton is being manufactured in a new 500,000m2 factory at Cosentino’s headquarters in Almeria in a development that has doubled the size of the Cosentino factory complex.
Many of the stone processing companies that are potential customers for Dekton have been taken to Spain to see the new factory and preview the product as it has developed. This magazine announced in October last year that Cosentino was spending 128million Euros on research and development and the new manufacturing plant for Dekton. There were some under-the-counter samples of the product itself to be seen at the Surface Design Show in London in February this year.
Now it is out there for everyone to see. It is manufactured using a process that combines the technology of ceramics and glass making to create a new and unique product that can be used for both interiors and exteriors. It is available in large format slabs (3.2m x 1.44m) and is resistant to degrading by weather and UV light. It will allow designs to blur the barrier between interiors and exteriors at all levels, on horizontal and vertical surfaces.
Dekton is an ultra-compact mixture of inorganic raw materials combined to make a new class of surface that will, once again, involve a learning curve for the processors.
Dekton is not the only ceramic-like sheet product that has been introduced to stone processors and some of the larger companies have already discovered that CNC waterjet cutters used in conjunction with saws provide the best answer for processing.
The initial Dekton range is grouped into three collections: Solid, Natural and Tech. Solid colours are what they sound like, Naturals include stone-like finishes along with ‘cement’ and ‘rust’. Tech covers anything else. There are three finishes: polished, matt and slate.